Sued by an MCA lender? Bank account frozen? UCC lien?

Often, yes. Merchant cash advance agreements routinely place disputes in New York courts regardless of where the business operates, which is how out-of-state merchants end up defending cases here. Whether a New York court can properly hear a particular case is itself worth examining.

Not necessarily, but the options narrow and the work changes. A judgment is challenged in its own proceeding rather than as a defense, and the available grounds depend on how the judgment came about. It is worth reviewing rather than assuming.

Frequently it is. Settlement and litigation are not alternatives so much as a sequence, because understanding what is wrong with a claim is what makes a settlement conversation something other than a repayment plan on the funder's terms. Which route fits depends on the agreement and on what has already happened under it.

A merchant cash advance is not a loan in form. The funder buys a fixed dollar amount of a business's future receivables at a discount and collects by taking a share of daily or weekly deposits. New York courts look at substance, not the label on the paper.

Two numbers do most of the work. The purchase price is what the business receives; the purchased amount is what the funder is entitled to collect. Because the gap between them is a fixed sum rather than a rate, an MCA agreement typically quotes no interest rate at all.

Write down the date you were handed the papers, then find the court and index number on the first page. A lawsuit has been filed against the business, and usually against whoever signed the personal guaranty, so both need to be dealt with rather than only the company.

You have a limited period to respond. How long depends on how you were served and which court the case is in, so the papers themselves are the only reliable answer.

Ask the bank for the judgment creditor's name, the county and the index number, in writing. Do not move money between accounts. The freeze and the judgment behind it are handled on separate tracks, and payroll and rent do not pause for either, so this is the one to move on today.

Moving money while the account is frozen can create problems well beyond the original debt, and judgment creditors have information subpoenas available to them, so new accounts are not difficult to find.

Often, yes. Most merchant cash advance agreements include a personal guaranty signed by an owner, and funders routinely name that person as a defendant alongside the business. What the guaranty actually covers varies between agreements, and it is worth reading closely rather than assuming.

Some guaranties are limited to specified breaches, such as diverting receipts or shutting the business down, rather than guaranteeing performance of the advance itself.

The first conversation is about what the papers actually say. The agreement and the payment history go side by side: what was signed, what was actually debited, and what the funder says it is owed. Whether those three reconcile is where everything else starts.

From there it is ordinary civil litigation — an answer with defenses and any counterclaims, discovery aimed at the funder's own accounting, motion practice where the contract supports it, and settlement informed by the defenses rather than the demand.